Democratic Alliance MP and shadow communications minister Marian Shinn has filed a motion “without notice” asking that parliament debate the privatisation of Telkom “in the interests of rapidly installing high-speed communications infrastructure to benefit service delivery, economic growth and job creation”.
Shinn’s decision follows her comments on Monday, in the wake of the resignation of Telkom group CEO Nombulelo Moholi, that unless the company is privatised, it runs the risk of turning into a failed enterprise.
“Should government persist in its naïve and dangerous management of Telkom, we may well soon see the company come cap in hand to parliament asking for a financial lifeline,” Shinn said on Monday.
Shinn says news of Moholi’s resignation was “tragic” and offered “further proof that seasoned professionals find communications minister Dina Pule’s amateurish and reckless meddling in the affairs of a listed company intolerable”.
Shinn tells TechCentral that following her request for parliament to debate Telkom’s privatisation, the matter will now go before the technical programming committee, which will decide whether it will become a subject for debate in the national assembly and, if so, when.
“I might add that there is quite a queue of ideas for debates on critical issues and little time left this year to discuss them,” she says. — (c) 2012 NewsCentral Media
- See also: Drama at Telkom: Pule reacts